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Resource summary

1 Moral Relativism - there are
no universally valid moral
principles and so there is no
one true morality

2 Subjectivism - each person's
values are relative to that
person and so cannot be
judged objectively

3 Plato - used his Theory of
the Forms to explain his
beliefs of objective and
universal moral truths

4 Aristotle - we can be virtuous by
looking at virtuous people and
discovering how we can better
develop our character

5 Cultural Relativism - what is right or wrong is
dependant on the culture (diversity thesis)

5.1 e.g Muslim punishment (cutting
of a man's hand for theft)

5.2 e.g arranged marriages

6 Descriptive Relativism -
different cultures and societies
have different ethical systems
and so morality is relative

7 Reasons for Relativism - the decline
of religious authority, understanding of
different cultures, unacceptable effects
of interfering with other cultures

8 Weaknesses of Relativism - cannot criticise other
cultures (e.g The Holocaust), just because cultures
vary does not mean that there is no absolute good
(do not kill etc), does not allow societies to progress